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Raise Volcano
| rarity = Uncommon | type = Instant | casting_cost = | research_cost = | effects = Turns a targeted tile into a Volcano, potentially destroying specific assets in that tile, and subsequently providing a permanent to the spell's caster. }} Raise Volcano is an Uncommon Instant Spell belonging to the realm. It may only be cast on the overland map, and may only be targeted at specific types of tiles. For the base Casting Cost of , it will cause a Volcano to form in the targeted tile, removing any Minerals in that tile and reducing the and bonuses it gives to any nearby cities to zero. For as long as it continues to exist, the Volcano itself will give a bonus to its casting wizard. Raise Volcano cast on a Town has a high chance of destroying one or more Town Buildings. Effects Raise Volcano transforms a campaign map land tile into a Volcano. The resulting destructive effects of this are numerous and long-lasting. Transformation of a Land Tile When Raise Volcano is cast on an overland map tile, it will transform that tile into a Volcano. This disables all benefits given by that tile to nearby Towns. Towns receive various bonuses from any tile within their catchment area (a 5x5 square centered around the town, minus the corners). These bonuses may include extra speed, extra income, and an increase to the Maximum Population of the tile as a result of bonus . They also receive bonuses from Minerals on those tiles, if they exist. When a tile is turned into a Volcano, all of these bonuses disappear. As a result, the town's output of and may fall by some amount, and the town's Maximum Population (and hence Population Growth and/or production) will drop by a small amount. Minerals in a Volcano tile are immediately and irrevocably destroyed. As a result of output decrease, one or more of the town's free Population may automatically be turned into permanent Farmers in order to keep its citizens fed. Also, the drop in Population Growth may result in citizens dying (negative growth). The Volcano can be turned into another (more productive) land tile through various spells, such as Transmute. However it is not possible to bring back any Minerals destroyed by its creation. Raise Volcano does not destroy any Encounter zones in the affected tile, nor hurt the creatures guarding that zone. It also does not destroy Roads. Destruction of Town Buildings Volcano may be cast directly at a Town, if that Town is standing on a valid type of tile. When this occurs, each Town Building inside the town must roll a random number between 1 and 100. Any Town Building that rolls a 15 or less is immediately destroyed. To regain that Town Building, the town must produce it again as normal. Note that it is possible to cast Raise Volcano on the caster's own towns. Power Bonus While the Volcano continues to exist, it will give a constant bonus to the wizard that created it. Due to the high cost of the spell, this increase in power is not cost-effective. It would take 200 turns for this extra point to generate enough to pay for the spell - but then again Power can be invested into Research or Spell Casting Skill increase! Volcanoes Reverting to Mountains Before patch 1.31, Raise Volcano was considered almost a game-breaker: It was possible to continue covering the world with more and more volcanoes, and over time the caster's power would grow to unbeatable levels. This is even more noticeable with the Armageddon spell, which does so automatically. To fix this, Simtex added a mechanism in patch 1.31 that simply reverts a few existing Volcanoes back to Mountains every turn. At the start of each turn, each and every Volcano on the map rolls a random number between 1 and 100. Any volcano that rolls 1 or 2 (a 2% chance) will degrade to a Mountain. Therefore, if the world map contains 50 Volcanoes at the start of a turn, one will revert to a Mountain (statistically). As a result, Raise Volcano's benefits are somewhat temporary. Each volcano you cast will last, statistically, about 50 turns - repaying its own Casting Cost and perhaps a little more than that. Therefore, when casting Raise Volcano it is important to concentrate on getting the maximum benefit - raising the volcano on specific tiles (especially underneath enemy towns) to cause serious damage to enemy economy rather than just for the Volcanoes' Power bonus. A note about the degrading effect: when a Volcano reverts to a Mountain it also has a 5% chance of creating a new Mineral there. This may end up giving a benefit to the enemy, if you've raised the Volcano in their town catchment areas. Take this into consideration when targeting the spell. Usage Raise Volcano may only be cast on the overland map, for a basic Casting Cost of . It must be targeted at a land tile. The spell may only be targeted at specific types of Terrain, as listed in the table below: Additionally, tiles containing Nodes may not be targeted by the spell. The new Volcano is raised instantly. Any nearby Town will suffer the effects of reduced resource income as soon as the town's owner's next turn begins. When cast on a Town, destruction of Town Buildings resulting from this effect is also immediate. However, no report or feedback is given as to how many Town Buildings (if any) were destroyed. The casting wizard's Power is also raised by immediately, though this will only mean anything at the start of the next turn. Note that the distribution of Power into generation, Research and Spell Casting Skill increase remains the same unless manually altered. The new Volcano is permanent, and is not maintained by magic. Only the change itself is a result of the Raise Volcano spell. The spell runs its entire course instantly, and therefore may not be dispelled after it has been cast, and does not require any Upkeep Costs. There are ways to turn a Volcano into a more productive land tile, but they do not involve casting any dispelling effects. Acquisition As an Uncommon spell, Raise Volcano may become available to any Wizard who possesses at least one Spellbook. However, its availability during the game is almost never guaranteed. Customized Wizards possessing Spellbooks at creation time may choose this spell as one of their default spells before starting the game, in which case the spell will already be researched and available for casting immediately on the first turn. Wizards who possess at least Spellbooks, or Wizards with Spellbooks who did not select Raise Volcano as a guaranteed spell, will be able to Research this spell at some point during their campaign. Wizards with fewer than Spellbooks have a random chance of being able to Research it. The chance for this spell to appear increases with the number of Spellbooks the Wizard possesses or obtains during gameplay. Raise Volcano has a base Research Cost of . With at least Spellbook, the Raise Volcano spell may be acquired as a reward for winning encounters in creature Lairs, Towers, et cetera, or when conquering the Fortress of a rival wizard who has already researched this spell. Strategy Raise Volcano has several effects, and can be used in a multitude of ways as a result. For one, this is an excellent economic-attack tool that is significantly harder to reverse than Corruption. It both destroys a tile's production and permanently removes Minerals from that tile, so it may be terrific for preventing an enemy town from benefiting from such minerals. It is also wise to cast this directly at enemy towns - especially large ones containing plenty of Town Buildings. The more buildings a town contains, the more chance there is to destroy at least one of them - and possibly more than one. You can also use Volcanoes to slow down enemy movement by placing them along your borders. Remember of course that Flying units can cross over Volcanoes easily, as can Mountaineering units. Also, Roads constructed over Volcanoes allow units to cross them just as quickly as any other tile. The increase in the wizard's is also a terrific bonus from the spell. The more Volcanoes you create, the more your overall magical prowess increases. Unfortunately, since patch 1.31, Volcanoes will eventually revert to Mountains and cease providing this power bonus. Use Armageddon, if available, to counteract this. Known bugs Contrary to the 1.31 patch notes, the spell never creates a new Mineral when the Volcano reverts into a Mountain. Investigation of game code reveals that a new Mineral is created at the time the Volcano is raised instead, however it is immediately erased afterwards, because they applied the two operations in the wrong order. The 1.50 Unofficial Patch fixes this bug and enables the created ore to appear. Raise Volcano will not change the movement costs of the affected tile. This means that ground units need the same amount of to enter a tile as before the Terrain was changed. For example, a unit just needs point to enter a former Grassland tile; or a unit just needs point to enter a former Forest tile; or a unit just needs point to enter a former Swamp tile. Category:Instant Spells Category:Chaos